The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-02-06
John Y. Nelson, the Cham
piOn Guide and Liar.
NEWS FOR THE OLD 47.ERs.
A Scout Who SAYS he PHoted
Brigham Young to Salt
Lake in 1916.


pioneers and savages now depicting the
perils and pleasures of frontier life for
the delectation of effete Fasteners with
Buffalo Bill in the Madison Square
Garden,
Nelson may not be as handsome as
was his namesake of naval fame, but
his spare, sinewy FRANC, long gray hair
and ARD and keen blue eyes mark
man whose sixty years of life's battl
have ca led forth something of the
heroic. For forty years and more Mel
son has lived the free life of the from
tersmau-l I'm ing and trapping,
mining ana rauching, now govern
ment scout aud guide in war or ex-
ploration, anon leading his clan in tue
tribal warfare of the red man. For b
least his lot vi b the nomad race that
roamed the pr ,ires.
He told the tale Of his Journey with
The apostles of Mormondom, to which
lat-r eTents have given historical i'm
portanCe, amid surroundings lrresist-
IDLY suggestive of Tennyson's thought:
-lulG4 W III d ~ lAtlllO
What to me were sun or cline
l, the heir OF all the ages
In the foremost files OF times?
He was seated on a camp-stooi In one
of the score or so of tents that line the
sides OF the broad upper corridor at the
| TWenty-s Street side of Madison
Square Garden, his wife, Sioux squaw
squatted at his feet industriOusly Stitch
NJ NTH ShYaHG of hn ffoln
thread, a boy of u stretched on a couch
of deersklns in one corner, and
copper-colore lassIe of 8 sleeping
peacefully on bank of blankets in an
other corner. Others OF their dusky
brood romped in the long passage
outside with the pappoose OF
the Pawnee or the Sioux, and
came at their white fathers bidding to
shake hands with the visitor. Bright
eyed, bIack-haired, bli5he and quick,
the elements of savage and civilized
blood seemed strangely blended in their
natures. There had been nine child
rem of this marriage, the old trapper
said, of whom five were living, the ED
est, girl OF fifteen, pursuing her stud
les in Brooklyn boarding-school. To
earn provision for their support and
education he has turned his back on his
loved mountains. Occasionally the
tent-opening was Garkened as the tall
form Of a Sioux or Pawnee brave in all
the glory Of war paint and f athers
stalked past taking his afte noon con-
situtiOnal. Altogether there was
strangely interesting realism about this
Indian camp, visible only to the init
ated, that in many respects is more
striking than in any OF the scenes pre-
sented with elaboration in tie regular
show below airs.
"It was late in the fall of 1916, l
think, > Nelson began as helit his pipe
and showed back his broad SombTero,
Il was at Cottonwood Springs, Neb.,
living with an old Mexic n half-bIeed,
who knew every inch of the Rockies
like book. We were doing nothing in
particular, and ready for jou, when
Brigham Young came along and asked
my Mexican guides and myself to be
his guides across the Rockies, promis-
Ing Us good pay. He had four COM
panions, Mormon Elders, think, but
cannot remember their names. Seven
in all, we started with two emizrant
wagons, one Of them loaded with -four,
bacon, coffee a9d biscuit, enough for
two years supply. l don't believe Brig
ham Young had any idea when
he started just where he was
going, nor when he would get
back. II was a sort of prospecting
trip. He and the Elders called each
other brother and the old man was
gnod-natured, jolly sort of fellow. He
talked good deal of religious lingo,
but he was not the Sunday-school pious
Jonah kind; would say damn it just
Al Z rr,D,,lI ID ~
hand at euchIe. l was quite young
Mexican did Mt speak much English,
Brigham talked q good deal with me
and tried to convert me to Mormonism.
"He was about forty, well set up and
with big, strong head and neck. l
did mt take much stock in his aIgu-
ments Cef nding polygsmy which 10
Smith had recently introduced as re-
veiation among the saints. But Brigham
gave me the idea of man who is pretty
firm in his epnion and actually be-
lieved what he preached.
I'VE didn't hurry ourselves much.
making only about twenty miles day
with the wagons, pitching our tents for
three or four DAYS at a time
when we got, into a likely region
where game was plenty, and
exploring the country fer miles
around. l don't think we met white
man all the way across. There were
lots of Indians, bat they didn't trouble
US, just coming into camp to trade off
fresh meat or skins for bacon and coffee.
Towards Christmas We struck Hams
Fork, in western Nebraska, after max
ing a journey of nearly 1000 miles
There we were showed up until the
spring.
That was a particularly hard win
ter, and the snow was forty feet deep in
places where it had drifted over the
canyon. But we didn't suffer: pro-
visions were Tlenty, there was lots of
game. and when we couldn't get water
We got snow and melted it. Our camp
at Hams Fork was pitched in shell
tered VALLEY, and We got all the elk,
antelope and bear We could shoot.
IE'Late in the spring, when the snow
had melted, we stru, K camp and started
straight up The mountain about forty
miles. Right up on top Of the noun
tain we found large lake fed by liv-
ing spring chuck full of trout that beat
anything in the word. The smallest |
of them was about two feet long and |
weighed five Or six pounds, and the |
flaVOrb- The old trainer SmacEed